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6012/The Sane Asylum
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- Cliff Steele has posed:
The Madlands are in pain. Ever since the Chainer of Souls stopped providing their biennial soul to shield them from dreamers, more and more have been appearing. This is a problem because this deep into the madlands, the dreamers sanity and weight causes them to act like acid on the dream constructs, as such specialists carry them to a specially shielded area called the Sane Asylum where such intrusions from the Waking World do not harm the denizens. This might not be a problem, per se, were it not for the fact that Doctor Phrenologist, the proprietor of the asylum had such a curious mind and liked to ...experiment on its denizens. As it was, of course, solutions and substitutions had to be made...
Following dream logic, the entire seven story structure is seven stories of glass; the cells of its inhabitants totally transparent to those inside of it such that the dream forms of those insides were quite visible. The Brazier, sold at considerable cost was lit, and the City Fathers/Mothers were told it would bind the souls to it such that they would not escape the asylum and go wandering out into the city. And it worked...too well. The souls bound to its supernatural gravity found themselves sleeping, night after night, the time differential of the madlands making the 'crazy dream' seem like a year to the single night. Because it really WAS a year subjectively. This had been going for a week and while the souls were held in the gravity of the burden but the number was getting more and more crowded.
The city outside was gorgeous but used Escher and Dali like Geometry, twisting and impossible spires, some in bending and shifting non eucledian geometry, flying bird skeltons on fractal geometry trees, straight lines up and down into the ground with thanksgiving construction paper leaves draped all over them.
All of this was visible to the inhabitants of the Asylum who had little else to do but watch each other or the city or the grounds day in and day out. The caretakers were animated straight jackets that walked about on legs made of extended surgical tape, moving in and out like bees from the closed door of Doctor Phrenology, the only room besides the basement that could not be seen into. Note, of course, the wards could not see through the transparent walls. When they looked in, a small spy hole closed that blocked the 'eyes' as it looked into the room to check its patients.
But one room held a physical occuptant, not a dreamer at all, but physically present. Subjectively he had been here for centuries even though he had only been gone for three years in the normal world. His fingers were held together by a simple paper finger trap that induced depression. It had held him here for a long time but as the wails and screams began to increase in the asylum, slowly, ever so slowly, depression began to be replaced with rage. And Cliff's eyes glowed slowly more red. "Wh....whaaa....whaa....."
SNAP. The paper was torn just like that and Robotman began to look in shock. "What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?"
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Things have been pretty busy for Mike recently. And with the balancing of his work and personal life he's spent a little less time focused on the powers usage. He has caught glimpses of similar dreams but he didn't think much of it. Plus, after the- other incidents, it seemed best to just let sleeping dreams lie until he was rested enough to deal with them.
Well, that was the plan.
However, it appears that if he wasn't going to go into the dreams, the dreams were going to come to him.
And that is how the purplish black raven smacked into Cliff's window, sliding down with a cartoonish streaky sound.
- Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate has had a whole lot of wierd dreams this week.
Okay to be fair she has pretty much had the same strange dream every night this week and it is getting to be a bit much. She can't describe it as waking up in the Asylum. Though it is actually something akin to that. She closes her eyes in Titan's tower and opens them in a prison made of glass. The city below was wild, somewhere Kate was absolutely convinced that Vorpal would love. It was pretty much the sort of mad world or wonderland kind of vibe he seemed to personify. The Cheshire Cat in all that.
Honestly all of the varied things here, she should have probably told Terry about her dreams, but she kept forgeting with as busy as things were during the day.
The dreams though. That strange Dr. whom all the animate straight jackets listened to. The times where Kate had to experience her most intense emotions and relive them. Her mother's death. Joining the Titans. Saving the Day. Competiting on Themyscira and fighting the Manticore. All of them intense. Not all of them good. Not all of them bad.
Still having to do that for a year a night has definitely started to have a toll on her.
"Ughn... not this again." she complains as she opens her eyes looking up through the glass walls at other people in other cells. She shifts and rolls to her feet and heads to peer at the walls once more. For the thousandth time looking for a way out of this dream box. "Mmm"
Her dream self is wearing her Hawkeye stuff, it is a core feature of her identity.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette dreams.
This is not an unusual thing. Not just in the way it is not unusual for any person to dream. Most people spend one to two hours walking the paths of Dream each night. Colette is no different in that respect, but she has been doing it a lot longer than most people. The total time during which the words 'Colette dreams' have been true is in the order of a quarter of a billion years.
Another way to put it is that Colette is used to dreaming. She's an old hand at it. And she's had a lot to dream about.
Colette dreams of an ancient space-ship, reminiscent of some vast cathedral, made out of flesh. She dreams of a ring of stars exploding into viridian mist. She dreams of an ocean of dust adrift in space, populated by creatures the size of small moons that drift endlessly in the eternal night. She dreams of a canal ten miles wide that circles a desert-planet, the thousands of strange vessels sailing that vast canal the only habitation for the world's population. She dreams of spires carved from the bedrock by organo-technological processes by a long-dead civilization, inhabited by the virtual reality ghosts of its former population. She dreams of drinking coke in Times Square. She dreams of the Temple of H'ronmeer, a great and gloomy place where Martians gather to debate the difference between life and death, between light and dark.
She dreams of a city of intersecting planes and impossible structures that bend the rules of geometry beyond breaking, where skeletal birds perch in fractal trees, where the bridge on which she stands crosses a river that flows overhead, and where an erratically lurching seven-story building looks like it's going to fall on her at any moment. Unusually, she does not recognize the location. This gives her pause. It's not common she dreams something new to her.
Colette dreams, and she looks up a the Sane Asylum, faintly offended that something unexpected should interrupt her dreams. She decides she will find someone to complain to.
- Cliff Steele has posed:
The Dreamers all stir, the Lucid awareness of a person physically present sends ripples in even the shielded elements of the Sane Asylum. The Workers move back and forth in panic but isolate Kate and Colette and Cliff as the biggest problem with Cliff being the biggest concern for them. Another pair of surgical tape appendages emerge from the workers, with a needle in each 'arms' ready to pacity the patients, over a dozen opening Cliff's door as he is about to pound them and looks at the bird. "Wha?" He blinks and breaks open the window, some of the glass turning to dust on touch with his hand as he grabs Michael in one hand to keep him from falling down to the ground. That fall could be slow and harmless or instead of seven stories accelerate to several hundred. The thugs advance on Cliff and he punches one, turning it to a bundle of tape and then another, their needles bending as they try to inject him.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
SCREEEEEeeeeeeeee-
As the glass breaks from the outwards motion, the raven's body falls back away from the building before the sight of the metal hand grabbing out manages to take hold of a talon. Wings flap as the raven sets out to right himself effectively slinging him forward into the cell.
"ARAWK!"
- Kate Bishop has posed:
Oh hey..... This is new... The door is opening.
Kate cocks her head abit now. "Ah.. excellent.... this... this I can work with." she backs up slowly from the two Workers, or as she thinks of them now Orderlies. Mostly because she is trying to get a bead on how fast they move and also to give herself room to move.
After they both enter the cell, she does just that, moving quickly around to the right so that only one of them is closer to her and then she steps forward fast.
While martial arts isn't what she is famous for, she is still Talented with various forms of offensive and defensive fighting ranging from boxing to jiu jitsu.
Still this is fighting animated inanimates so she isn't entirely sure how it will work. So mostly she is going for a couple of quick strikes to try to tangle up the things needle arms and launch it at the other one. Her goal is to get out of the cell through the way they came in and leave them behind now.
Hell if there is a door she will kick it shut leaving them in the cell for icing on this crazy cake.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
There is something particularly offensive to Colette about the seven-story building. The way it seems to be at the wrong angle is not exceptional in this city of incoherent spacial relationships, but it's the nearest offender to her, and therefore the one she will bring her complaint to.
If she can figure out where the front door is. There's no visible path from the bridge to the building, but something that might correspond to a street can be seen below the bridge in the immediate proximity of the building, so Colette travels from shadow to shadow to get there, and starts to circle the building, looking for something that resembles a door. She sees one, upside-down, two stories up. Another stands ten feet in front of the building, in the middle of the street, but is not directly connected to the building itself. She contemplates this one for a few moments before deciding it's irrelevant.
The way in becomes apparent when a section of non-descript wall a short way ahead of her swings open like a door, and two orderlies from the Sane Asylum come trundling out. Slender figures apparently constructed from bandages, sutures and hypodermic needles, rolling forwards with hospital gurney wheels for feet, arms outstretched, advance on her.
Yes, this place is definititely something that requires complaining about. Colette raises a hand towards the onrushing figures, commenting "No, I don't think so," before unleashing a blast of dark energy at them. In the real world she always tries to do that kind of thing as subtly as possible, but this is a dream. No need to hold back.
The windows in lower floors of the Sane Asylum rattle from the blast of dark magic, and Colette steps through the mound of bandage and debris that used to be two orderlies, to walk inside the Asylum. "Okay," she yells. "Who's in charge here? I have a complaint."
- Cliff Steele has posed:
The Alarm sounds the instant Kate steps out of her cell, the light turning to red and flickering black and yellow, obnoxious but the howls of high pitched whale songs that only dogs can hear, except that everyone hears it anyway keens through the building. A few other doors begin to strain as Kate looks about merely by her presence though are holding for now.
Cliff makes quick work of six of the things turning them to piles of bandages as he can clearly recognize Michael is something MORE than just a regular dreamer, but ...more defined somehow. A bird but the eyes are more intelligent, "You OK little guy?" He asks as he pounds another straight jacket into tape and steps out of the door as two behind him ruin two more needles fruitlessly.
Colette is not immediately met with any explanation except six of the things that begin to move at her, though the door to a large office named "Doctor Phrenology, Director" begins to SLOWLY open, then reopen, then reopen in a loop that is wrapped up in the logic of dreams as a large glass hands with stenciled body parts emerges, slowly
Cliff is about to go downstairs to get the hell out of dodge when one of the dreamers in the cell across the way says, "You? Robot...man? Robotman, yes, you need to get the Brazier...in the basement..."
He looks down and there is a large room with large pipecleaner men made of red felt wires are feeding ....something? Coal? Into a burning brazier that now that he looks is spreading eldritch 'unseen' tendrils that he can 'see' to the horizon as more and more dreamers appear within sight as they feed more ...coal? into it,
"What the fuck is that?"
"The Brazier of Kuldun, one of the most dangerous artifacts in the dreamlands..."
"Is that where I am?"
"Yes."
"I thought I was in space again. Fuck."
- Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate looks up and around as the alarms start going off. Okay that is actually something much more familiar. Annoying yes. But familiar. "Well okay... didn't like that at all." she mutters talking to herself. She glances down at the glass cells below her then up at the ones above her.
The door bulging and everythingf strangeness is very strange. Then again the whole city is strange. She wanders down the hallway and eyes one of the straining doors then kicks out hard and fast with a booted foot. She has a lot of practice kicking in doors without hurting herself and is curious what happens if she does it here now.
Very effective is what she finds as the door shatters inward and open revealing a dreamer in a cell much like hers.
"Hmm... this is going to take.. way to long..." she shakes her head and starts to head down now. Well. Tries to. She spots a lot of activity going on down there through the glass floors. Somewhat distorted. Somewhere there has to be ... ah spiral glass stairs ... she starts to trot down.
Not that there isn't a tussle. She is more than happy to literally tie an orderly who gets frisky into knots.
The gruesome bit is the wheeled guerney legs they seem to have. Well she snaps both of them off and twirls them now like really makeshift escrima sticks as she progresses making her way down.. down.. down.
She has really had enough of this dream world in particular, and honestly has no compunctions of decimating dream orderlies. It isn't like they are real right?
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
The raven's wings flap, trying to get loose before "YEAH YEAH LET GO!" The bird responds back. "F***ing hell, can't take a couple nights off without something pulling me in."
The wings stop flapping, instead adjusting to push himself out of the hand.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette stares for a few moments at the gang of 'orderlies' advancing on her, then at the door-that-doesn't-door-properly. The the siren goes off, just to add the annoyance of the situation.
"Director, yeah. That'll do. I want to speak to the director." She holds out her hand again, this time not projecting a blast of dark energy but rather a wall of it, which the orderlies run into and attempt to push their way through, as if unable to see it is blocking their path. She turns her attention to the figure with glass hands attempting to emerge. "It's a /door/," she points out, voice dripping with sarcastic contempt. "Just because it's the dream of a door is no excuse not to be able to go through it. That's what they are for, you know. Get it together, incompetent half-wit child of L'zoril." The Martian name for their god of dreams. Colette has no doubts of where she is.
"And 'Doctor Phrenology', seriously? What kind of a dumb fucking name is that. On the other hand hey, if you think hammering your skull into a different shape will make you a more co-operative person, I'm game."
The orderlies continue to push against the wall of darkness, wheels spinning wildly, and slowly they seem to be making some progress. There's a slightly disgusting squelching-sucking noise as the first of them finally pushes through the wall of darkness, but for no particularly good reason it comes out the other side of the wall of darkness as a swarm of brilliant blue butterflies that careen crazily around the room. Colette looks at this, blinking with mild surprise, as the second one slips through, doubling the size of the butterfly swarm.
Colette swats butterflies away from her face and looks back at the unfolding glass-handed figure, presumably Doctor Phrenology himself, and sighs. "This is fucking stupid," she tells the director. "Make it less stupid or I'm going to start wrecking the place."
- Hope Summers has posed:
Hope Summers has always been a workaholic, burning the midnight oil so to speak as she works long and hard to find out whatever she can on the latest mystery bad guys that had been giving mutants and other young metas a hard time lately. Lately, she hasn't had much time to actually take it easy even though she made some promises, to herself and to others..
Eventually exhaustion took over and she slumped against the sofa of the study room, drifting into the mysterious world of dreams..She hadn't in fact had a good night's rest in a long while now, so her body was making up for all those sleepless nights, finally..
She is..In some sort of asylum then..Glass walls..Prison..Futuristic city. Wait, did she get bunted through time again? She frowns, not liking being a prisoner and frowns, knocking on the glass. "Hello?Whats going on? Let me out!" she yells, maybe just a bit panicked.
- Cliff Steele has posed:
All hell breaks lose.
First, the legs for the orderlies WAS surgical tape but now its wheels. That's what happens when Dreamers run around Dream, they change things especially here. They were wardens but now they cant think of themselves as anything but orderlies. They keen extreme exasperation.
None of this is as deadly as the sheer BANALITY of Colette's complaints. The door stops flickering and opens and a large glass skull with the regions of the brain marked on it such as 'hope' and 'joy' and 'fear' as he 'frowns' though since he is perrced atop a glass maniquen's body dressed in a morticians suit how that frown is accomplished is not clear. He touches a region of his head that says "Fear" and suddenly the orderlies and several dreamers are cowering. Granted, this is unlikely to affect the martian construct, but Dr. Phrenology doesnt know that does he?
Kate runs down the stairs that seem to grow more palacial and more ornate as she moves, th e clear glass slowly becoming more and more stained glass showing various scenes of her life as if she were viewing them on a medieval tapestry and as she goes downstairs she hears Hope's voice and kciks open the door. They can see each other clearly, images of themselves but ...different, idealized and altered by their internal belief of who or what they are, but still recognizable as themselves. There is a very large switch on the far wall on this floor that says, "Master Cell switch, DO NOT break" with a small note beneath that written that says, "Why did we include this again?"
Cliff looks at Michael and says, "Whoa there sorry buddy. Didnt know you were a talking bird."
"He isnt."
"He isnt what?"
"A bird," the sage in the far room that told Cliff about the Brazier, "He's a Dreamer, and a powerful one. Both of you, hurry, get the Brazier! Before they summon the Pianos!"
- Kate Bishop has posed:
"Well.. this is annoying..." Kate notes as she runs down the staircase and it goes from Asylum Chic to something her family would love. Not her really. But man her father would definitely build a stain glass staircase just to show other people how over the top rich and powerful he is.
Probably not with scenes of Kate's life though. Several of which get wheeled solidly and shattered as she races down those stairs. Not really keen on other people seeing too much of her life, even in a dream. Not when she is kitted out and has a secret or three to keep.
Still she pauses on a floor when she hears a distinct cry for help, and ever the hero hits that cell door hard with her wheeled stick weapon shattering it too. "Oh hey .. you can stop yelling now." before looking around and then blinking. "Okay.... this is ..." she just sighs. "God Vorpal would love this place way too much.... makes me realize why Rae wants to throttle him so often..." she eyes the switch and the note. Then walks over and purposefully breaks it wiht one of her escrima sticks. "I hope this shuts the alarms off too.... getting really sick of those."
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird pops out of Cliff's hand floating above it for a few moments to put the wings on the hips in assessment. He turns his head, eyes narrowing to the assessment that he is a dreamer this time around.
But if he's dreamer this time around-
There's a twist of the bird's beak upwards into a smirk. "Alright." He looks to Cliff, "Lead the way."
The bird lands upon the floor, form elongating into something a bit more canine like. "Sooner we get this done, the better." The grey wolf adds.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette's mind is a complicated thing of several parts. Behind potent barricades of Martian psychic control, attempts at psychic interference of all but the most powerful sorts brush lightly against the surface of her mind and are easily ignored. Here in the realm of dreams things are a little more complex than mere psychic power though. In Dream, that which should not be possible is possible, and in the human parts of her mind, the awareness that she /ought/ to be feeling fear grows increasingly strong. As the third of the orderlies becomes another swarm of butterflies, Colette takes a nervous step backwards, her rock-solid confidence beginning to waver.
There is a third part of her mind that is neither human nor Martian, but something much older. That knows fear too, but in a different way. She stops backing up and chuckles slightly. The blackness of her pupils grows larger, filling her eyes and starting to swarm down her face. Smoke-like darkness floods from the sockets and starts to envelop her. Whisps of darkness form around her hands and flow up her arms, swirling into shapes like tendon and sinew, fingers growing long and claw-like. "Fear? Really?" She asks. Her voice begins to echo strangely. "Foolish. You're just a little dream, I'm a nightmareareareare.
Colette steps forwards, the shadows-form that she had been turning into seeming to melt away as if she were stepping out of it, and she's back to humanity. "Want me to start jabbing at bits of your head? That looks like fun, I could go for that." She raises a finger threateningly, aiming in the general direction of 'hope'. "Alternatively, straighten your fucking building up, try obeying the basic rules of geometry, stop making this whole place so fucking dumb, and maybe even upgrade your psychiatric practises to something a little less nineteenth century. Phrenology? At least read some fucking Freud or something!"
- Hope Summers has posed:
Hope Summers narrows her eyes, glancing around, calming down almost instantly as Kate frees her, much easier from the outside than the inside. But she's no longer yelling to her attention and no longer in panic mode. In fact, as she steps out of her cell, Hope is already assessing the situation, all battle mode ready..
Of course, in this realm, she's not a battle hardened young soldier, nor is she a cape and spandex clad super heroine..Instead, Hope Summers is just a lanky girl, dressed in a navy and white themed school girl uniform, kinda like a certain other girl in a movie she once watched in a dreamworld like this about a girl trapped in an asylum in a dream..Hey, she even has a sword strapped around her shoulder, ready to fight if he'd be, even if she promised herself some 'me time'.
"Right...I'm Hope Summers. What is this place, some sort of extra dimensional time warp? I'm used to time warps, never seen so,etching like this before.." she glances up the steps that Kate came down, frowning thoughtfully at the delicate colorful glass...Okaay, she came from that way, but are there any other ways out of this place? "Hey, I dont think we're alone, you hear voices?" Hope glances around for the sources of other prisoners they might be able to free..
- Cliff Steele has posed:
Dr. Phrenology sputters, insulted, "FRUE...FRUE..FROY....THAT ...THAT...HACK!? FIRST YOU RUIN MY ENTRANCE AND NOW YOU QUESTION MY METHODOLOGY! PHRENOLOGY IS LIF!!!!!" He touches a region on his head that says "Music" and a softer keen, more like radio telegraphy goes up from a glass antena on top of the building....waves moving out to the city as base notes begin to play and lights go on in the city as the sun moves rapidly down on the horizon and dark shapes the size of oak trees or elephants begin to stir and move en masse towards the Asylum.
The Orderlies are properly intimidated and are finding useful things to do elsewhere, suddenly panicked as Kate's actions unlock ALL of the doors. The good news is that everyone is free. The bad news is that no one is able to 'wake up' while the Brazier is active and people are panicked and confused as the orderlies inject a few causing them to fall asleep.
Cliff follows Michael, punching a lot of Orderlies as they move. As they go down, Cliff recognizes Titan (Gar told a lot of stories) and says, "Hi guys. We gotta go to the basement and get a glazier."
There is a shout from the top floor as the sage corrects him off screen, "BRAZIER!"
"Right what he said." He points to the basement, through the still transparent though rapdily opaque random scenes of stain glass on the ceiling, floor and walls of elements of their lives, "THAT Thing." The red pipe cleaners look up, shake red furry fists and feed more into the brazier which seems to be building to critical mass.
- Kate Bishop has posed:
There is a deep breath as she breaks the control switch and all of the cells start opening. "Hawkeye... odd someone in a dream has a name and isn't someone I ever have met. So um... maybe we are in an extra dimensional time warp."
There is a pause. "I mean.. I've been to wierder places than this. At least more dangerous ones... this has less demons at least..." she mutters.
She starts to head towards the stairs once more. "The prisoners should be all free now... sounds like it at least." is replied to Hope's statement about not being alone.
"Hello..." to Cliff looking at him a bit curious then starts to ask what a glazier is... but is interrupted with the off screen correction. "Oh.. Brazier.. I was going to ask something about donuts but.. okay." she glances down. "Okay... well lets go get it then...." she squints "Is that Colette?" looking through the glass floor now.
Regardles. "Stairs this way...." she squints again at Colette through the glass though then runs for the stairs down.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Time lost with the initial interactions Mike is a bit ready to catch up. Now, perhaps some more thought should be placed into who he's helping but, when has that stopped him before? And honestly by the time someone has the debate about who is in the right and who is in the wrong and the various factors going on in the scene. The situation might be over and much worse off than if he took action.. Best he can do right now is hope he picked the right side based off of what little information he was given.
And it is SO little.
The argument about how to pronounce the word draws the Wolf's attention. "Glazier, Brazier, Tomato Tomahto. All I know is if I see a co-"
He pauses as Cliff gestures to downwards through the... just noticed transparent floors. "Right...Let's take the express route."
His form shifts YET again, this time becoming more humanoid in apperance, leading to a mirrored image of the rocker. Hank can yell at him later if he finds out about this somehow.
He holds his arms out. "Grab on to an arm, close your eyes, and jump. You'll be fine."
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette's starting to have fun. "Question your methodology?" she asks with an incredulous laugh. "That's not a methodology, it's a laughable superstition. Really though, it's cute. Imagine believing that phrenology is real!. Still, you are a particularly stupid dream. Phrenology!" She gives a bark of laughter. "Maybe I should dream up some phlogiston and burn your dumb building down, that would be a way to fix your geometric incompetence."
Colette's attention is fixed on the immediate surroundings, and she doesn't notice the others yet. Even as Kate spots her, her attention remains on Doctor Phrenology when he starts up the music. She folds her arms, looking at him with a wry expression. "What's this, trying to sooth the savage beast with music? It's not going to work." She starts circling the chaotically discordant figure, studying the zones of his glass skull. "How do you change the channel on this thing?" she wonders provocatively aloud. "Or are you permanently stuck on dubstep? Is there a part of your skull I can touch to make you shut the fuck up?"
- Hope Summers has posed:
Hope Summers arches a brow, glancing around and smirks, "Soo what, you co e here often? Are they friends? Who put us all in here?" she follows after Kate down the stairs, peering at Colette. "Hey, need a hand? How do we get out of this place?" usually the one in control, Hope suddenly feels frustratingly out of control and helpless in this weird glass maze like building.
- Cliff Steele has posed:
As Collete mentions this, the effects of being a dreamer shift the writing on his skull to include the words, "Dubstep" and "STFU" and "Georgia" and "Love" and "Antidisestablisharianism" and "Ennui" as he begins to back away in exsistential horror, "You will pay! You will all pay! The Pianos come for you and no mortal can withstand the Running of the Pianos!" He starts to laugh and then laughs hysterically rising his hands in a sinister fashion though his skull is very much within reach.
Cliff grabs on and (assuming Kate and Hope do too) mutters to himself, "Why didn't I think of smashing through the floor?" But he lets the guy who can change his shape in a dream take the lead here, part instinct and part not being sure what to do.
Discordant Piano music is audible on the horizon.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Arms held out, Mike cracks a smile, "Alright, eyes closed til I tell you to open. Do not let go until I say to. Everyone set? Yes? Good! Eyes closed! Jump on three! One- Two-"
"THREE!" And in true form of a musucian on the beat, Mike takes a jump off the landing, taking those who opted to join in with him. In the dreamworld it is a rush as they blaze past previous floors before their descent rapidly slows to a stop. Mike peeks, mindset allowing for him to properly guestimate their proximity.
Upon reaching the basement floor the musician chuckles. "Thank you for taking the Phantasm express. Please hold on until the ride comes to a full and complete stop. You can open your eyes now."
- Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate reaches out and grabs ahold of Mike when he says to grab on like that. "Well... I thought about it." about the floor smashing. "But I don't have any of my explosives with me and I figured I couldn't do it with these wheel legs from the orderlies..." still she tucks one wheel leg away and grabs hold firmly.
"Eyes closed?" she quickly closes her eyes, not entirely sure why they need eyes closed, but she closes them.
It sounds epic.
She is frankly a bit upset she missed whatever the show is and everything but still she keeps her eyes closed not about to risk it.
When she is told she can open her eyes she lets go, opens them "Huh.. okay... that worked..." she glances up then around. Hmm pipecleaner minions.. sort of.... okay this is still an odd place.
She snags the tucked away orderly leg and starts to wade in ... beating Dr. P's brazier feeding minions.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette keeps circling Doctor Phrenology, grinning at him with a predatory expression. She holds out a hand and starts to focus her imagination on it, trying to convince herself that she's holding a sharpie. "Oh I like it, Doctor Pseudoscientific gibberish. I really do. The whole zones of the skull thing, it has such promise. I wonder what happens if I cross out what's written there and write 'reality' in its place. Don't you think that would be fun to find out?"
Finally her attention is drawn to the presence of other people in the dream as the Mike Express brings them close, two of whom she recognizes. She watches at them with an expression of amusement as they hurtle past, through the ceiling and through the floor. "Well that's random and entertaining." Raising her voice to call out to them: "Kate and Mike. Hi, welcome to my dream. And uh..." she looks Cliff up and down. "What are you supposed to be, low-budget Cyborg? Oh and Sucker Punch." She looks upwards and raises a finger to the heavens. "Fuck Zack Snyder!" She announces.
Colette turns back to Doctor Phrenology, not paying a whole lot of attention to the new arrivals, on the assumption that they are just part of her dream rather than being real presences, but jerks a thumb in their direction through the glass floor. "Have you met my friends? They're a crack team of ninja piano-tuners. The robot looking guy once tuned forty-seven pianos in a single minute. The piano hasn't been born that they can't tame."
- Hope Summers has posed:
Hope Summers is quite confused by now as more people join them, including the crazy guy wuth wruting on his skull (?) Oh and that weird guy who, wasn't he a bird earlier? Tells them to grab on and she shrugs, stepping to join them. "Okaaay, I guess this couldn't possibly get any weirder. I just hope you know what you're doooooing...!"
rThen they're travelling through floors and landing in the basement. She blinks. "Woah..Sooo there must be a door out of here somewhere.." she starts peering around, resting doors, helping to free anymore prisoners who might still be stuck in their cells, though ever keeping an eye out for the exit.
"Wait, Sucker pu --Are you saying we're all sucked into someone s dream? Then, who?" she peers intently at each of them in turn, wondering who pulled them into this mess. All bets are on crazy guy with writing on his skull.
- Cliff Steele has posed:
Doctor Phrenology is actually panicked now, "REALITY? You'll kill us! ANYTHING but that!" He is the most powerful being in the asylum and realizes he is out of his depth randomly pushing elements on his head, dubstep which makes patients and orderlies dance briefly, Georgia which puts them in southern clothing, rapdily trying and failing to melt into the wall.
Cliff mentions, "Actually I did tune 20 Pianos once when Mr Nobody" and is too busy punching pipe cleaner men in the head as they sudenly swarm at him. There are dozens of the things, easy to grab and bend but hard to 'hurt' the 'coal' on close inspection shows memories and dreams. The brazier isnt evil but OFF, WRONG in this place and burning these memories just feels...WRONG, like an aobmination, at this point he begins to rage and punchthem by the score and looks at the others, "LET"S CLOCK THESE ASSHOLES!"
As Hope slowly fades there is a large GAP in reality as many of them simply cease to exist.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
"I think we're all dreaming." Mike responds back, "Most dreams are singular but some places are the merging of many dreams to make something more lasting. Like a mental baton pass. I think we're in one right now."
As Hope fades off, he tilts his head, "Case in point." Planting his feet, he bolts forward, launching himself into the air to switch back to the wolf form. Claws snatch up one of the pipe cleaner men, twisting and bunching it up into a lump of cleaner.
- Kate Bishop has posed:
"Well.. Dreaming does sort of make sense..." she glances sidelong there as reality sort of intrudes and Hope leaves and .... many of the pipecleaner minions also cease. "Well.. hope she wakes up refreshed...."
Kate looks up through the floor at Colette and waves her weapon. Then points down at the Brazier and then points to Colette and then over again.
Then she clocks a minion in the head.
"So this thing is part of why I am having recurring dreams stuck in this place.. do we smash it or steal it.. I mean.. I think steal it." she sweeps a couple of the minions aside with her makeshift weapons.
She starts to make some headway to it, stubborn. "Move it figments.. you're not even REAL"
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
"It's MY dream, obv!" Colette shouts down to Hope. "I'm dreaming you all. Probably a bad cheeseburger." Hope vanishes and Colette gives a shrug. "No staying power. Maybe not the cheeseburger then."
She advances on Doctor Phrenology, the sharpie now 'real' in her hand, as much as anything is real in the dream world they're currently in. "Correction, Doctor P. it'll kill YOU. I actually am real, so reality is fine by me. C'mere and let me scrawl on your skull, you glassy fuck."
"When Mr. Nobody /what/?" Colette calls down. "You can't leave us hanging like that, robot guy! Stop messing around with pipe cleaners and finish the anecdote!"
Colette swarms forwards suddenly until she's right over Doctor Phlogisten, sharpie being wielded threateningly as if it were some terrible weapon. There's a squeaking sound as she scrawls 'reality' on his skull. "Maybe 'wake up' would be another good option," she says with an evil grin. "It would be fun to see what effect that had on you. " More squeaking as she scrawls some more. "But let's start with...." squeak squeak. "There." Colette's finger jabs down on a skull zone that now reads 'pipe-cleaner men begone.'
- Cliff Steele has posed:
"I don't want to talk about it," Cliff mutters, clearly its a bad memory, like a REALLY bad one and the rage he is already using to bend the pipe cleaners into knots is even MORE focused, and he grabs the brazier that is red hot but doesnt seem to bother his hand, "So I have the damn thing? What now?"
When Collete redraws the part of his head there is a RIPPLE and suddenly sleepers begin to wake, vanishing and the entire asylum begins to vanish as the Doctor screams in pain. Collete herself is feeling it...easy to wake up though if she tries she can stay and continue to get them. Jabbing the region as compared to the writing is even MORE potent and as Michael and Kate fight the things below suddenly all of them are gone. The minions are clearly messed up from Cliff and Kate and Michael but now they are gone, even the bent ones.
The voice from the top floor says, "The Brazier must be brought back to the Waking World....RUN!"
The thunderous Pianos make the earth shake as animated pianos, hundreds of them rush up from the city making discordant music the size of Elephants with 'angry' expressions.
- Kate Bishop has posed:
"See I knew I was right. We need to steal it!" there is a laugh, mostly because all of a sudden Kate is actually having a bit of fun with this messed up place.
Well Maybe not the Pianos. That music sounds prety discordant and bad.
"Col.. I think we are all in each others dreams or maybe a DREAM... but still it isn't REALITY...."
Regardless she has no one to hit with her beating sticks thanks to Colette so she darts forward with the cleared basement and reaches to pick up the Brazier, or at least get a firm hold on it. "Do we just.. wake up now or yank it through or what..." depending on how big it is. Then well the voice said run, but where. She looks for an exit. "Could use a door with an exit to the waking world right now...."
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Challengers gone, the wolf glances around and looks up to the ground level. Ok so now it's being suggested they take something from this world to the waking world? "Uh, try waking up while holding it?" He looks to Kate, "I don't think I can pull out dream objects or dreamers. Kind of have to be physically real to be brought to reality."
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Wakefulness starts to assert itself in Colette's mind, but as far as she is concerned this dream is her personal dream with no particular existential aspect to it. She hasn't realized there might be any actual consequences to all of this, and she doesn't want to leave just yet - she's having fun.
She decides to remain a bit longer just to add to the chaos, so she adds a few more zones to Doctor Phrenology's skull. There's 'a door back to the waking world' because Kate asks for it, and that seems like an amusing notion. There's 'Give everyone a bottle of Maker's Mark' because why not. There's 'Herd of Piano-eating flying sharks hungry for piano flesh' because that'll sort out the piano problem. There's 'no more butterflies' because there's /still/ a swarm of butterflies in the air and they are getting annoying.
Then there is the final insult. One more squeak of the sharpie, and Colette touches a zone on Doctor Phrenology's skull that now says 'Phrenology is fucking dumb.'
Colette holds her hand out, opens her fingers, and lets the pen drop to the floor. No microphone, but she can do a pen drop.
"Right. I'm done. Stupid dream anyway. Where's the fucking door?"
- Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele says, "I think I'm really here unlike you guys, I might have to carry it." He mutters and looks worried as Kate and Michael conjecture, "But I mean which way is the real world?" He mutters. AS he mentions it Cliff does seem JUST a little more solid, just a little more mundane than the others, and the urge to wake is slowly increasing.
As she writes, Doctor Phrenology screams and maker's mark appears, including one in Cliff's hand, "Thanks!" He chugs it.
The butter flies vanish and several people go through the door.
The door to reality suddenly gains a giant neon, "EXIT" sign."
- Kate Bishop has posed:
Well. It seemed like an excellent plan. Kate carries the Brazier of Kuldun runningf for the doorway out. Neon sign and everything blinking above it.
Speed seems to be of the essence as she hits the threshold, piano music pretty disconcerting there.
Of course what no one explained is the Brazier can't be brought out this way to the real world. It catches on the threshold, her momentum causing it to slam into her chest, then she ends up tumbling past it letting it go as the 'breath' is knocked out of her.
She is gone.
The Brazier remains clattering to the ground.
Back in Titan's Tower she jerks to sit upright breathing hard in her bed.
"What... the ... Actual... Fuck..."
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike's eyes widen as he looks to Cliff. The wolf sits, looking to the metallic acquaintance. Who knew fur could become paler in expression? He frowns, studying Cliff's features for a moment. "I'll keep an eye out for you." The musician promies, "If I can. I'll try and come back. Fully."
POP! Goes the dream bubble.
- Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette peels the wax from her bottle of Maker's Mark, pulls the cork and takes a good swig, before raising her bottle to Cliff in acknowledgement. She contemplates blasting a hole in the floor to get to the door Kate has passed through, but decides not to bother and steps from shadow to shadow to get to it instead. "Later, dream-Kate," she says with a smirk as Kate steps through, leaving the brazier to tumble to the floor.
Colette stares down at the brazier, then looks back up at Mike and Cliff. She looks back at the brazier. She shrugs her shoulder. "Don't look at me, I wasn't even paying attention to that part of the dream," she says. She takes another swig of Maker's Mark. "Besides, dream. It doesn't exist. You don't exist. Later, dream-dudes!"
She steps nonchalantly through the door, still swigging, and awakes in her apartment.
Colette sits up in bed, rubs her eyes, and smacks her lips. "Weird fucking dream," she comments to herself, then yawns. "Totally the cheeseburger."
- Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele does, of course, still exist and looks back at a hoard of angry Pianos and says, "FUCK!" as the trapped dreamers all flee through the door as Cliff takes the brazier under his arm like a football and runs, and REALLY runs, faster than his considerable speed even normally is, though the Pianos give chase for some time, the sun rising in the North.
All around the Waking World people wake up and share details of the dream. A few even find each other in the internet. For most, though not all of the dreamers there is a lingering memory of the discordant Piano music.
5816/Jailbreak at the Chainer of Souls
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- Hellboy has posed:
Morrigan and Hellboy had spent the past several days investigating the network of the chamber of souls and the network of the Chainer of Souls to try and figure out how to free the thousand and thousands of souls he had captive. Subjectively, from their point of view the entire time took over three weeks despite only being gone a single week. But eventually, they were able to locate a way to bring in a portal and call in reinforcements for a brief window of time. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the effort took the entirity of Morrigan's magical reserves, knocking her unconcious as a result. That, and, the duplicate hellboy's magical tweet and darknet post had hopefully gotten a response from the hero community. Hellboy had the know how but not the muscle by himself to do this alone and there would only be one chance.
As it was, the portal opened rippling at precisely the time and date posted by Hellboy (the singing one) to the shock and astonishment of the eaters at the tavern, a wide golden rimmed thing with sparkles leading in to the dark and curved realm. Through the portal it was easy to see Hellboy, shooting the Good Samaritan again and again at a seemingly endless hoard of little purple imps long enough to hold the portal open.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Well. Time for a bit more bad news. Mike's not really monitoring social media 24-7 and save for work related posts he's pretty quiet on there. He has no clue what darknet is. And well- yeah.
So. HOW did he manage to show up to the park in time for the portal to open? Well the same way he met all the other magic people. He zoned out.
Honestly someone should talk to the musician about walking when mentally checked out. It's a miracle he hasn't been hit by a car yet. But. He gets distracted. He's still walking, his thoughts just happened to drift over to Mo's situation and well- Here he is at the the park.
The visual of the portal in the distance does get his attention though. It's kind of hard to miss. And being that's the guy who took Morrigan well-
A hand reaches up, twisting and tugging the gater cap down, flipping it to cover the nose on down. He starts running towards the portal, steps becoming a bit quicker as the scar on his right forearm fades over to the left.
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Who should step through the open portal but a face not seen since a certain faerie apocalypse in '79. The heist of a potent magical artifact got someone's attention and the leather clad blonde sorceress has actually been on Hellboy's trail since.
"Oh now I see the source of all of this commotion. It's been a long time Red." Rien says eyeing Hellboy for a moment though her lips quirk into a faint smile. "You never were one for subtlety."
- Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy spots the two of them enter and smiles, glad for the back up. He nods and takes out an improvised flamethrower and shoots it at a bunch of the hoarde. "Well, I CAN be subtle, I just almost never am."
The world beyond the portal is...ugly and grim. There is a single orange sun in the sky and the entire world carves in on itself on the inside of a sphere only twently miles in diameter with many many caves along the way and a series of brass tubes that go from the parched barren earth all the way to a sphere in the center with the occasional glittering golden cylinder that sometimes flecks green a little. The heroes are in the center of this on ANOTHER sphere just beneath the orange light that makes up the sun that lights the world. There is an army that seems to go on forever of the ugly little foot high purple imps with several large mechanical spider things in the background and SOMETHING shaking the earth but unseen coming closer and closer.
Hellboy shouts, "We need to go through that door" he motions behind him, "and destroy as many of the anchors to this network as we can while holding off the Chainer....the more time passes, the more power he can drain from the souls. And yes, those lights out there," he nods to one of the small glowing cylinder, "are sapeint souls, human or otherwise pulled from a dozen realms.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike archs a brow as he looks around to the scenery. Imps. Giant mechanical spiders... He can't feel the movement underground but he can see the effects the shaking has on the environment. His head turns, glancing around for the school principal. Not seeing her he frowns.
He looks back to Hellboy, eyes narrowed as he listens to a brief explanation of what is needed. "First off, Where's Morrigan? And second, you going to point out the anchors?"
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien arches a blonde eyebrow, "We both know that you can not. Even five decades later, some things never change."
But the humor soon fades as she regards the hellscape that she has stepped into. "It has been a few years since the last time I was in a hell dimension, I did not miss it. Chainer of Souls? Sounds wonderful. Well let's get this over with."
- Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy says, "The portal sent her back once she activated it, so far as I know," he says as he fires the Good Shepard right into the one of the on coming spiders piloted by the imps smashing it, "she is back home. I didnt exactly get a chance to confirm that since she vanished. That was the plan though. The anchors are big giant red vats of liquid on the other side of the door can't miss it." He punches three imps in the face and looks at Rien. "Well...I mean they change like....slowly" he smiles at Rien,"Very slowly. I'm sure I will be very subtle eventually." He nods to Rien, "Backup very much appreciated." He nods to Mike, "Both of you."
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
There's a slight shift in posture at the mention of her being sent back. Mike gives a slight nod. "Right. Can check later. So long as she's not here."
Perhaps it's the visit to Limbo, or perhaps it's because people dream a lot of WEIRD stuff. But there's not much questioning the current situation. Nor does he seem to blink as an imp finds out the hard way that a tackle from behind is not that effective a means to attack him.
"Right." the musician says as he moves forward, focusing his strength to the tip of his foot as he punts the surprised imp across the scenery. "I'm game. Let's go."
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
And out come the claws, both metaphorically and literally, as three nearly foot long bone claws extend from the back of each of Rien's hands. The wicked looking protrusions glow faintly with a mystical bluish white light. She then leaps into the air and proceeds to positively thrash one of the giant mechanical spiders, slicing through its legs with relative ease and rising up to punch straight through its core before landing again as it explodes behind her.
"Let's get through that door." She says offhandedly tossing a mystic energy blast at one of the imps that gets too close.
- Hellboy has posed:
The imp is punted with great impunity and shrieks its tiny helium filled voice with rightous indignation and swearing in a language you do not understand as it sails off into low sphere orbit. One down, a bamillion to go.
Hellboy shoots more and nods as he starts to wrestle with a spider leg, then another spider leg, "Yeah...I...Got. This." He gives a thumbs up and punches a large spider.
Three more imps are smashed and also righteously indignant. The spider Rien slices crashes with a thud and the imp comes out leaping for her but being singed in the face with raw magical fury.
Upon entering the door the room inside seems larger inside than the sphere itself. There is row after row of large glass red spheres with what looks like....blood? Kool aid? Its bubbling and frothing and hard to tell. There is no discernable source of light yet the room is lit. It smells but the smell is utterly alien and unique to this world and this room and the only thing you could call it would be 'bad' but not in a rotten or fumish way more like 'wrong' and not natural. Careful observation will note that the spheres almost seem to loop on each other so that the room is deceptively large but it isnt a mirror more like a gate, and its hard to tell where the gate begins and the anchors end.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
With the fate of Morrigan somewhat settled. The discretely phantasmed Mike has a moment to take in the third person on the last second mission. Claws noted, there is a momentary temptation t-
No. Don't. Not yet. Fists clench. Ok. Let them do the big stuff. Focus on the anchors. Annnnd maybe punt a few more of those imps along the way.
Whatever smell there is in the room, that's lost on him as Mike enters. One thing he gives up when tapping into this. He glances around the room, fixating upon the glass spheres. Fortunately the ability to discern color is NOT. And big giant red vats. Glass? Well then. Hello Anchors. Let's get busy.
Giving a running start, Mike's form shifts, growing larger in length as the masked human becomes more of a full grown grey wolf, speed to match he runs at full tilt before spinning his body, slamming into the glass.
Graceful? Probably not. Effective? Well. It's not quite a Bull in a china shop but-
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Stepping through the door, Rien lets out a sigh. "That is a lot of vats." She glances around, "And where is this Chainer then?" Yes, she asked the question you're never supposed to ask when the boss is not immediately apparent.
"Well, we might as well get started, I'm sure he will show up soon enough." The glow around her claws intensifies as she takes to the air flying low, claws outstretched to try and slice through as many vats as she can as she flies past.
- Hellboy has posed:
The answer to her question (that probably indeed shouldnt be asked) is a very loud ROAR that sounded like someone gargling chainsaws while the ground shook a LOT followed by swearing in Hellboy. Small chunks of stone dropped down from the 'ceiling' into the vats making eiry little plook plook ploots in the mysterious red liquid that was shattered into a gabillion pieces as Mike rushed into one sending shards of....glass?...up into the air as the liquid splattered all over him, the room and everything.
Time got weird.
The liquid reversed and then flowed up as if it were down to the stone 'ceiling' and then sideways. As Rien the Killing Machine got into the action the time dialation got even more obscene. Sometimes it sped up so that it seemed subjectively like they were going at fast forward and sometimes it slowed down. Causality itself seemed to unglue a bit and while none of the destruction was undone, at one point they could literally see themselves smashing the other jars.
They are making progress, but it is difficult to judge.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
Trusting the other two to deal with whatever the hell this chainer is, the wolf continues to try smashing. But being this is not a typical environment for him to go all dream wolf on, there are some additional issues to deal with. It's like time took notes from the bastard child of Chariots of Fire and the Benny Hill theme. Utter chaos.
Almost dreamlike.
The furnado continues, spinning around striking as much glass as possible. The spin looking more and more like Mike's chasing his own tail. And at one point he does catch it.
Because it was right there. He holds it for a second before letting go and continuing with his spin.
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
When you make a career of hunting monsters and demons, weird comes with the territory. When you hang around Hellboy, really it is to be expected.
Time doesn't have the same meaning to Rien as most people though, when you have lived for over a century things begin to blur together, even still the constant flux within this place can be a bit jarring. Still, there is a task before them and she aims to complete it with brutal efficiency as she flies about smashing as many vats as possible.
"Oh it looks like Prince Charming has arrived." She quips when the roar and shaking announce the arrival of the Chainer of Souls.
- Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy there is more crashing, more roaring, the sounds of a thousand imps crying in pain as their indifferent master slices them all to cut down the accursed one and there is then a counter roar that shakes the room, and the sound of fire, lighting and blows. That roar is the kind that Rien has only heard once before, when Hellboy entered his full demon form.
The work of destroying the anchors is tedious, meticulous and only someone of strong will can keep it up. There are problems though. For Rien, the liquid 'smells' to high heven. This time though it isnt her physical sense of smell but mystical one and her vulnerability to sensory overload is slowly starting to trip her up. Its just...too much. Its taken some 'time' but she finally realizes that this is remnants of souls used up by the Chainer and its just...YUK. Not dead bodies but icky to be sure.
Mike has the opposite problem. His vulnerability to magic is working here and the time dialations are slowly leaking through to his body. It shouldnt work like that, but it is. Its not a direct PHYSICAL pain but the magic and the souls therein are not meant for 'mortal' beings to handle and the dream stuff gives him a certain level of immunity but its simply too much dark magic not to have an effect. It won't 'wake' or disconnect him but its hardly a pleasant experience.
- Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
One moment there's a Morrigan gathering herself up from where she'd been channeling her energies, then she's gone. She was going to help the big dude. "Does he have any weak spots?!" Morrigan calls out to Hellboy. This might not be the best idea, but, she's been known to do something. If he doesn't hear her, she's just going to start hitting where she can see some chains breaking.
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
As the wolf progresses through the task fo smashing and spinning. The gray, brown, and white of the fur starts to shift red. As the movements progress, he seems less Balto and more Cujo-esque in appearance.
The wolf stops, staggering for a moment as it looks around, looking for more to smash. They're almost done, right? He can hang in. Mike's head looks up to the sound. A flicker of shadow crossing along the fur to obscure some of the red. He's starting to get tired. And with the percieved time flux of before, there's a general sense of impatience. With the familiar voice speaking up, a building sense of anger as well. She was supposed to be SAFE...
A low growl emits from his throat as he regroups himself. Charging at the remaining anchors, fur getting darker and darker as he goes. Got to hold on. Just a bit longer...
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rather than clawing through a tank Rien flys straight into one, crashing through it and into the ground in an impact that looks like it hurt.
She isn't down for long though as she pushes herself to her hands and knees and shakes her head trying to clear it. "This place smells worse than the Seine."
She grunts as she pushes herself back to her feet and from some unseen pocket produces a handrolled cigarette, lighting it with a snap of her fingers. The unique blend of herbs within, both mystic and mundane, when burned seems to at least somewhat alleviate the overwhelming stench around her. "Why do demons always smell like a sewage disaster?" She asks blowing out a long trail of smoke and then launching forward to resume her rampage again.
- Hellboy has posed:
The Horror.
Where to start? The chainer of souls is...well...chains and souls. The chains themselves are from a distance made of rusted steel but the longer you look at them or the closer you stare at them you realize that what seems like rust is infact horrified nightmare faces trapped in bubbled and bent space time like amber and a mosquito, but each link in the chain is as long as a human arm, and as thick as two handwidth and there are hundreds upon hundreds. There is no 'body' for the thing though there are five or six 'arms' and twelve 'legs' in a Spagetti of chains without all the adorable pasta calories or spagetti strainer pirates. It lashes out again and again with fury and torrent at its opponent...
Gone is the friendly neighboorhood cereal munching adorkable Hellboy and replaced with it is a ...thing. A Kaiju of monstrous proportions blood red with dark bat wings and glowing green crimson eyes flickering like a nightmare breathing brimstone and frost and fire and hell itself as he lifts his arms to the 'sky' and pulls forth lighting bolt after lighting bolt which destroys thousands of imps with a hit though the numberless little buggers act as a plague of locusts slowly swarming up his forearms and legs slowly miring him and the chainer seems to be winning...until the Red Right Hand pounds the Chainer again and again. Instoppable force meets immovable object and the only thing keeping Hellboy from losing is that Hand which was forged before time itself and unbreakable and involate, thousands of souls all conjoining.
It is an impasse....until Morrigan unleashes her elemental fire. It seems tiny in size to the sheer scope of the combatants, but it tips the balance, freeing enough of his leg that he can move forward and REALLY punch the thing breaking many many many locks.
Meanwhile inside, time breaks down further as the chainer draws more and more of the power of his captured souls, straining the anchors. The battle is clearly one of will and Mike and Rein work and work and work until their psyches are straining, but finally FINALLY time begins to flow to normal as the battle outside tips the balance and is only possible at all with their own continued efforts until they finally seem to almost done.....
The chainer is not so easily denied however, and when it realizes it is losing in spite and fury begins to slowly BURN the souls it has collected rather than use them. None are yet destroyed but a few are fading and the extra energy it gains causes more vermillion saint elmost fire to slap into Hellboy's face sending him reeling.
- Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan's trying very hard to make heads or tails of things. She just doesn't want to end up hurting one of the souls. "I'm going to figure out how to release them...I'm going to get smacked over it. But...that's OKAY!" she shouts. She's talking mainly to herself, but, just so everyone knows what she's thinking. She floats up towards the Chainer and proceeds to work her magic, literally. Sorcerors gonna Sorc!
- Michael Hannigan has posed:
"Take your word for it." The wolf snarls, pausing to close his mouth as he slams into another container. As he skids to a stop on the other side, he gets back up and starts to charge at another one. "Can't smell a thing."
SKID.
CRASH!
SKID.
CRASH!
You get the picture. He's going to do this til there's nothing left to smash.
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien's eyes narrow at the burning of souls, another long trail of mystic herbal smoke is exhaled as she stops and begins to gather her magic, waving her hands as she chants an ancient runic incantation of binding twisted with raw natural fury. "You're the Chainer of Souls, leave burning to the firebugs." She calls out even as with a gesture she calls forth chains of molten fire that lash out piercing through glass vat after glass vat as they arc towards the chainer, "Since you love chains so much, let's see how you like being bound."
- Hellboy has posed:
Between Mike and Rien they are able to finish smashing the anchors. Well....the temporal echoes of them serve as the basis for the fury and fire of what Rien is summoning and as she dabs into it the echoes and mingles of pure soul stuff, not souls but the basic magical components of one forge the chains that work on the chains that make him up. She is insideously powerful and when combined with Morrigan's assults it helps turn the balance, but the sheer SCOPE of the thing would make the task impossible....except the Red Right hand punches the thing in the face. Yes, it has a face finally exposed as it looks in horror, eyes and a mouth open in shock as it realizes the anchors are done.
It is done.
And the souls are free.
The Demense of the Chainer rocks and begins to crumble.
Hellboy, instinctively understanding on a divine level ...well....infernal level what is happening as he only can in his current form roars like the bastion, a clarion dinosaur call, "RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"
And one by one the soul batteries break and burst the angry shrieking souls turning on the chainer battering it one after the other until it bursts, the world falling apart at the seams. The souls are trying to go where they were meant to go before stolen, some guided, some drawn there, some sent there by inertia a few still lost, but Hellboy spots one like a bright light in amber and moves to save it.
It is obvious that the portal and the demense itself will collapse in moments.
- Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan's violet gaze is glowing and she's trying to get things to let go. They could do this. The Irishwoman shakes as she pours the last (for real this time!) the last of the magical energy that she has into their works and finally, there's the snap. Then she hears Hellboy screaming for people to run. "HEAD FOR THE PORTAL!" she calls out to those who are still there. She'd make sure folks got out quick...and in one piece hopefully.
- Hellboy has posed:
(From Mike)
As the task carries on, the wolf gives further growls of discontentment as his red coated fur starts to get even darker as the shadow crawls along him, encompassing. The urge to stop and run off is getting stronger but not knowing where to go and the continued self assurances of 'just a few more seconds' drive him on.
The welcome sounds of get the hell out uttered by the red headed demon child is not ignored as the wolf spins on his feet hightailing it towards the portal, watching to see if Morrigan makes it out.
Upon reaching the other side, the wolf form drops bringing back the gaiter masked musician. The Arm scar quickly fades from the left forearm back to to the right as he goes back human. Eyes widen as he senses come back into play. "OH GAH!"
Immediately Mike falls to his knees, huddling down. Hands clasp together as a quick, low rhythmic murmurs come from his lips. His positioning obscuring the words. But as he lights up like a Holy glowstick, it's apparent they were words of some meaning.
Come on holy light! Get that icky red liquid feel off. Get it off!
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien doesn't need to be told twice to get out of this blasted hellscape. Flicking the remains of her herbal cigarette towards the Chainer now under assault from the innumerable souls it had sought to contain, she snaps her fingers disappearing and reappearing next to the portal.
She turns back for one last look to make sure Hellboy in particular actually makes it to the portal, not afraid to bend space to get him there if need be, before stepping through herself.
- Hellboy has posed:
The collapse continues as the chainer bursts at the assault from the heroes until it is nothing but sparks and motes of light and the sheer Demense from the primordial chaos of the universe itself held together by nothing but its magical and mystical will starts to erode into nothing allowing souls to zing hither and yong as Morrigan and Rien get the sense that it is vast and distant, whereever HERE was was far far far from the Earth they called home in every conceivable way and as they run, and Mike comes with them it seems that they are going to make it...
Until the panicked remants of the Imp Hoard start to go forth about to pour forth onto Times Square. Hellboy is having none of it as he holds the soul he came for in his own hand while the Hand of Glory and the Big Red Hand and Hell itself unleashes hellfire on the imps killing them by the score. They will soon disappate into nothing all on their own but if they make it out they can wreak untold havok.
He smiles at Rien, eyes human though the rest of his form is monstrously demonic and vistule and waves but once as the time bending is not quite enough to prevent him from moving the three heroes out with one massive hand as the portal closes....and all three are in times square with astonished diners looking on as if not a moment had passed.
- Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan's not sure how this is all going to play out, but she has a feeling that someone isn't going to make it. And she figures it out once she turns, violet gaze catching on Hellboy smile at folks as the portal closes. "Anung you're not getting out of your scolding THAT easily." she shouts. She could open more portals!
If she found the right gems!
Then she looks around to see that they are in the real world and there are real human faces staring at them. She huffs loudly at them, her ripped evening gown getting picked up at the hem as she looks after Cujo-Mike, "I'll call Einar...or I can just portal us to wherever you want." she tells him. She gives a look to Rien and there's a dip of her head to her, "Thank you." she states. Then she's gone.
- Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien stares at the portal for a moment, they hadn't seen each other in fifty years and he still goes and pulls this sort of stunt /again/. The eyeroll is palpable.
A glance is spared to the shocked onlookers, before she just lights up another one of those hand rolled herbal cigarettes and just walks away knowing Hellboy will be back ...eventually.
- Hellboy has posed:
The world ends.
Granted, it's a small (rancid) world after all but without the soul or the chainer to hold it together or the link to the 'real' world outside through the portal, the IDEA that is the world has nothing to hold on to and so all of it, lock, stock and barrel falls apart. There are a few brickabracka of others who found their way there, real matter like skeletons or explores or one VW Bug with the number "53" painted on it or the random rock or eggplant or washingmachine but in general except for these few objects that go off hurdling into "space" Hellboy is alone with the soul. He slowly reverts into his 'lesser' (but to him 'real') form except for the long insanely curved horns which he snaps off with a bit of concentration. Then he looks at the small blinking light of a soul.
Souls can take a lot of forms, but in this case it is a small wisp of light, like a grain of sand meant for the child like empress but there is no Fantasia (as if) that springs forth from Hellboy's mind, its mostly just blackness of The Void as he senses a vague TUGGING in the soul of where it wants to go but unlike the souls trapped in the Demense, it is a bit LOST having been isolated in the locked form for decades in the real world, it has taken a toll, but the toll is not lost and the soul knows where it needs to go.
Hellboy floats with it, flying even though he has no wings and stands between it and the darkness. Occasionally, rarely, tentacled horrors or creatures of this void think to consume the soul or the hotblooded creature so rare among the darkness. A punch in the face or a shot of holy water from the Good Shepard quickly abuse them of this notion.
Time passes, and eventually they come to a large willow, brilliant and white with its branches and a small soft white glow around it. It is a nexus, a gateway to an afterlife for the soul. And on approaching, the soul finally takes the form of a young 12 year old Latverian peasant girl, greeted by the members of her family forming one by one under the spectral shades of the tree. She hugs her parents and her siblings, so apart for so long at last ready to move on.
She turns around and runs quickly back to Hellboy, hugging him and filling him with the soft warm glow that only good deeds can provide. She then runs off with her family, returning to 'wisp' form all of them as they spiral higher and higher up into the darkness of the Void.
Hellboy waves and watches and smiles as the tree slowly dims to a barely visible glow as he realizes he has no idea where he is or how to get back.
"Crap."
